1.1 This guide is a step by step process of what I did to be able to sync the calendar, task list and contacts on my PocketPC with the Evolution software that comes with Gnome.

1.2 I've spend many, many hours trying to get this to work. It isn't actually that difficult, the problem is the documentation that's available from the developers is dreadful, or at least dreadfully old. There are many user created HOWTOs but, again they are very old, dealing in the main with the old serial style connection used with Windows Mobile 2003. None of guides explained exactly how it all hung together, what packages were actually needed and what versions nor how to configure it all to sync. Lots of guides stopped with just a connection to the PocketPC, so you could browse files etc, but not sync your data. There also appears to be an overlap of what bits of what package do what. But, after a lot of trial and error it dawned on me how it's all meant to work and then it was easy.

1.3 I hope you find this useful, I know I would have done! Here goes!

1.4 Disclaimer: This is all given in good faith and I cannot be held responsible if you lose all your data / melt your PocketPC / anything else!

2 Installation

2.1 Kernel

2.1.1 The connection to the PPC is a network link so certain kernel items need to be built for the link to work. I tend to build things directly into the kernel. I assume building as modules will work.

You should now see a darkened PDA icon in the systray. This is synce-trayicon.

2.3 Plug in your PocketPC

2.3.1 Plug in your PPC using it's USB cable. synce-trayicon should notify you of the connection and update the systray icon to reflect the connection.

3 Configuration

3.1 Understanding the method

3.1.1 The synronisation process is a multi stage affair. opensync works by creating a group of two plugins and syncing data between the two. The plugins then communicate with either synce (synce-opensync-plugin) or Evolution (evo2-sync). A partnership is needed between synce and the PPC so the final stage of the sync process completes.

3.2.1 To create the partnership between synce and the PPC right click on synce-trayicon and choose your PPC then view device status. On the Partnerships tab choose create. Give it a name and tick Calendar, Contacts and Tasks then choose OK and close the dialog box.

3.3 Config of opensync

3.3.1 Run multisync-gui (listed as Multisync-qad in the Gnome menu) and choose to add a new group. Choose a name, OK, then choose Edit. Click on Add Member and choose the evo2-sync plugin and the synce-opensync-plugin. Highlight the evo2-sync member and double check it's syncing with the right catagories (in my case Personal). Close the dialog box to bring you back to multisync-gui.

4 Synronisation

4.1 First Sync

4.1.1 With multisync-gui open click on Refresh. This will initiate the sync between Evolution and your PPC. It may appear to pause at times but it's a multistage process and tackles each stage in turn. It'll say the sync was successful (hopefully) when it's finished.

4.2 Intergration with Gnome

4.2.1 Open up the Removable Drives and Media preferences box from the Sytems > Preferences menu. On the PDAs tab make sure Sync PocketPC devices when connected is ticked then add the following to the Command box:

Code:

multisync-gui

5 Other useful stuff

5.1 You can browse the PPC using Nautilus by right clicking on the synce-trayicon, choosing your PPC then Explore with Filemanager. Or using the PPC icon on the desktop, or through Nautilus directly.

6.1 If anybody gets syncing working with other programs I'd love to hear from you. There is a plugin that should enable syncing with Mozilla Sunbird that's also meant to work with the Lightning add on for Mozilla Thunderbird, and another one for Google Calendar, for example.

7 Troubleshooting

7.1 On occasion the PPC would not be detected on insertion. Syslog would show a new USB device but the network connection wouldn't establish. Plugging the PPC into a different USB port worked fine.

7.2 On occasion the sync process would not complete. A hard reboot of both my PPC and laptop would fix this. I don't know which device was causing the problems. Has only happened once so far.

7.3 Sometimes objects (contacts, calendar entries etc...) wouldn't sync. This is probably due to me trying to sync with two PPC devices. Recreating the sync group within multisync-gui forced a complete re-sync and things were fine again. Sometimes the following files had to be deleted before creating a new group.

Hi! I have follow every words in the SynCE Wiki and arrived at the point of creating the partnership, unfortunately i could not create the partnerships. The error is as follow: bash: create_partnerships.py: command not found.

Would any be able to lend a helping hand in this matter. I am stuck at this point in time.
Thanks in advance.

After trying several time, finally i managed to create the partnerships and now i am testing it._________________omani chrome ore